Grain dust EH66 - HSE

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40 The objective of health surveillance is to: ■■ ■■ ■■ protect the health of individual workers by detecting, as early as possible, symptoms that may be caused by exposure to substances hazardous to health; help evaluate the effectiveness of measures taken to control exposure; and collect information to update knowledge of health hazards in the workplace. 41 The precise form of health surveillance will depend on the particular circumstances of exposure (level, frequency and duration) identified by the risk assessment. 42 As a minimum it is recommended that there should be: ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ pre-placement screening that includes a questionnaire about present or past asthma or chest illness; information to new starters about what symptoms they should look out for and how to report; the completion of a questionnaire for all workers after employment at six weeks, 12 weeks (or similar intervals) and at least annually thereafter to enquire about any developing symptoms. The questionnaire should be administered by a responsible, trained person who understands the purpose of the questionnaire and what action to take if any adverse effects are declared. The responsible person should not be expected to make judgements on the cause of symptoms, diagnosis or other issues related to employability; and an individual health record for each worker. This should not include any sensitive clinical or medical information. Any such medical/clinical information should be treated in confidence and kept separately and securely by the occupational health professional generating it. 43 Lung function testing may also help to assess a worker’s lung health. Consider measuring lung function (preferably by spirometry) at the same intervals as for the questionnaire, ie pre-placement, six weeks, 12 weeks and annually thereafter. 44 Each employer must also identify a named occupational health professional (doctor or nurse) as the competent advisor who can: ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ help to develop the scheme; train the responsible person; advise on any adverse findings from the questionnaire and, in particular, fitness to continue in the work; and make arrangements for further investigations where necessary. Notification of reportable disease 45 All employers, the self-employed and people in control of work premises have duties under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR). They must report certain work-related injuries, cases of ill health and dangerous occurrences. HSE will pass details to the relevant enforcing authority. 46 RIDDOR applies to all work activities but not all incidents are reportable. 47 Further information about what must be reported and how to report it can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/riddor or in the leaflet Reporting accidents and incidents at work. 9 Grain dust Page 8 of 12
Appendix 1 Common tasks generating airborne grain dust Table 1 Common tasks generating airborne grain dust by process and industry sector Process Industry sector Task Harvesting Farming Harvesting grain and transferring grain from combines into trailers. Transferring grain from trailers into grain intake pits or stores. Feeding animals Farming Feeding animals with dry animal feed containing grain. Drying grain Storage operations Ship loading Farming, terminals & docks (grain import/export), commercial storage Farming, terminals & docks (grain import/export), commercial storage, malting, animal feed Terminals & docks (grain import/ export), road haulier Manual operation of drier from console beside drier. Cleaning drier at the end of harvest. Transferring grain around yard & into and around stores by vehicle. Maintaining/repairing pedestal ventilation pipes or augers in a store. Unblocking obstructions in transfer systems (eg elevators, conveyors). Sweeping edges of grain piles with brush. Sweeping store floors between grain piles and emptied stores manually and/or with mechanised sweeper. Tipping operations at grain elevators. Sweeping up spills from lorries after tipping into grain elevator. Transfer of grain along grain elevator. Dropping grain into ship’s hold via elevator chute. Levelling off grain in the ship’s hold by ship’s crew. Scraping/sweeping residual grain from inside lorry after tipping operations. Grain dust Page 9 of 12
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Grain dust EH66 - HSE

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